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Tuesday, 24 February 2009

But is there an age limit as to who it would help? I cook my own dinner and have complete control and i panic severely if i lose that safety net. Would it work with a partnership/marriage relationship too?

Handing over control seems like too much of a big step for me. Although M really wants me to consider inpatient treatment, as she says she thinks it's too much for me to deal with on my own. But i'm making the choice to restrict, partly out of fear of a repeat of thursday, but i'm giving myself the situation to deal with so in my mind i should be dealing with it at home, although i fear this is not fair on mum and D more than anyone.

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people had something to say about this:

With regard to what age group is helped by family-based treatment (the Maudsley approach), it is usually considered for adolescents living at home. Recently there has also been adaptations using it for young adults. http://maudsleyparents.org/askanexpert.html

UNC Chapel Hill is doing an interesting study including spouses/partners of people with anorexia in treatment. (This isn't the Maudsley approach though.)http://www.psychiatry.unc.edu/eatingdisorders/research%20eating%20disorders/ucan

Anorexia nervosa has the highest death rate of any psychiatric illness. Even when it doesn't kill, it sucks the joy out of many lives.

Unfortunately, lack of motivation to recover is pretty common in people with AN. Perhaps that's part of the explanation for the not-so-great recovery statistics. Maybe it's less that people don't want to recover and more that they are terrified of eating. Malnutrition has a powerful impact on the mind (the Minnesota starvation study is interesting on this) so restricting perpetuates itself and people get locked into a nightmarish pattern they often have extreme difficulty breaking free from.

Given all that, I can understand why family and friends of people with AN (of any age) might wish they could intervene.

Very often the first (refeeding) stage of Maudsley is given a lot of attention, but once healthy pattern of eating is re-established the focus shifts to the patient re-taking control of eating and looking at any issues that get in the way.

"Maybe it's less that people don't want to recover and more that they are terrified of eating. Malnutrition has a powerful impact on the mind (the Minnesota starvation study is interesting on this) so restricting perpetuates itself and people get locked into a nightmarish pattern they often have extreme difficulty breaking free from."

This is certainly something i'd agree with whole heartedly. Fear of eating more than i think i should rules my head but for reason i no longer know.